Rocket ship/doll house

The Educo Discovery Rocket is one of those toys I see in gift shops around the world and always think, huh, if that thing wasn't so big and unwieldy, I'd probably take it home. It's basically a nicely built doll-house shaped like a handsome modernist rocket ship. I just spotted another one and went off and read some reviews by people who own 'em, and it sounds like it holds together well, too. I'm thinking Christmas.

39 Responses to “Rocket ship/doll house”

Although, actually what it reminds me more of is the DIY one my Mum built for us. The official one was made from cardboard and cost a lot of money. Therefore my Mum got out the bandsaw and some plywood and made us one herself.

At the time I didn’t think it was as cool because it didn’t have the ‘authentic’ Death Star art on it, but we played with it for years – it was incredibly durable. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s still got it in the hold of her boat somewhere…

Even as a kid I seemed to realise just how stupidly expensive that death star was for what it was so I made my own out of a couple of cardboard boxes. Still remember the blisters from cutting thick corrugated cardboard with kitchen scissors… happy days.

Gender stereotypes such as this tend to insure that young girls will be less likely to develop and/or maintain interests in math, science, technology, engineering, etc. Yes, inclusivity of children of color in ads such as this would be a good thing too, but you have to start somewhere. I see one very white little boy. A little girl (of any ethnicity) would be welcome.

Strongly reminiscent of a softish-plastic, cylindrical, multilevel rocket-dollhouse I had in the early ’70s. Scaled to the MPC “plastic spacemen” of the day. Opened and shut like a briefcase. Anybody remember this?

I’ve seen this. Lots of small parts. It seemed like it was constructed from compressed paper. As long as you aren’t too rough with it, it should last a while. If you have destructive kids, look elsewhere.

‘Moon’ bugged me on this matter; Earth-like gravity in the base, low-gravity, bouncy-bouncy time outside on the surface. Yeah, ‘artificial gravity’ I guess, but a little inconsistent with the tone of the rest of the film.

We actually bought this for our sons (2 & 4 yrs.) for x.mas last year. They played with it for two days and quickly got bored. While all the little custom pieces are cool, there’s too many to keep organized. It certainly looks cool but lacks on usability.

Pack it away and bring it out again when they’re 7 and 5. Right now they’re too young for detailed imaginative play. Their fine motor skills aren’t ready for such tiny pieces.

Unit blocks (wooden blocks with mathematical precision….2 triangles are exactly one square, rectangle is exactly the same size as 2 squares, etc.) are a great investment. They can build their own rocket ship instead.

I remember being a bit ticked-off as a child when I got a Major Matt Mason book and read the statement on the copyright page stating something about Mattel owning the trademark for their DOLL. They actually put DOLL in all caps, for some reason, perhaps just to make 6-year-old boys’ heads explode.
(edit) You can read said book here, if you are in the mood for moon worms and giant space-rabbits): http://www.majormattmason.net/blb.htm

just looked it up, and not only does it look way more like that rocket ship than I remembered (not quite apple/samsung levels of similarity, but still…) but it specifically mentions “swing down solar panels” in the catalogue. They were just blue pieces of plastic as I recall…http://www.majormattmason.net/catalogs/catalog2/m3c2p02d.jpg